Managing website content can a formidable undertaking and a Content Management System (CMS) is a vital tool to help make it less so. But with all the myriad choices out there, what should an organization be looking for in a CMS?
Universality
The CMS should be a non-proprietary system, programmed in a language that is viable and universally known and supported. Even better, the CMS platform should be open-source, meaning (among other things) that the base code is accessible for editing by programmers, if necessary. Open source applications tend to have a community of folks who develop and support them; should your own developer suddenly “disappear” one day, or should you have a problem or need to move your site to a new host, you’re not stuck with something that no one can migrate, maintain or fix. Another big plus to most open-source systems is that there are usually no licensing fees connected to their acquirement or use, and the licensing is usually transferable.
Scalability
The CMS should allow you to easily and economically expand your website in terms of making changes to its architecture, adding new pages and sections, adding/editing search engine metadata, content blocks, etc. You should not have to pay a developer to perform these sorts of basic tasks!
Layout Flexibility
The CMS should allow you to add multiple (if not unlimited) layouts (or page templates) to the site. You may, for instance, need a two-column layout to accommodate textual content, but also an alternative one-column layout to accommodate a wide table, video or graphic. While you may need a developer’s help implementing a new page template, you need to know that the CMS can accommodate it and that you will be able to deploy and use new templates wherever and whenever you need to.
Extensibility
Certain basic types of interactivity and functionality are now a given on any website and should be readily available for deployment within the framework of your CMS. For instance, if you want to add a blog, a basic form, a calendar, you should not have to hire someone to do custom programming every time, or cobble together five third-party providers with difference log-ins for each function. An open source CMS should typically have “plug-and-play” applications already written for them that only need to be configured and placed on your website. A good developer will know how to deploy and configure these applications and should be able to make recommendations as to which might best meet your needs.
Flexible Permissions
The CMS should allow you to easily set permissions on pages and content based on user roles. For instance, you may have a landing page in your “For Donors” section that contains information for everyone, but you might also want content on that page viewed solely by logged-in donors. Setting these permissions should be something that the CMS allows you to do.
The Net Net
In full disclosure, Embolden builds the vast majority of its websites upon an open-source web development platform and CMS that meets all of the above prerequisites and more: namely DotNetNuke ® (DNN). Click here to learn more about DNN, or if you’re serious about taking the next step, ask us to give you a demo.